When to Plant Sunflowers in Shakopee, MN

One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

The USDA zone info for Shakopee should be reviewed to estimate when to plant sunflowers.


Planting Calendar for Sunflowers

Frost tolerance for sunflowers: Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant: After the last frost.

Since sunflowers are not cold tolerant you really should wait until after the last frost before you can plant them.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant sunflowers
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant sunflowers
Probably not a good time to plant sunflowers

The earliest that you can plant sunflowers in Shakopee is May. However, you really should wait until June if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant sunflowers and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your sunflowers may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your sunflowers indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is May 15 in Shakopee. It might get as low as -25°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Shakopee may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Shakopee last frost occurs after May 15 be ready to protect your sunflowers if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Shakopee

Here is the info for USDA Zone 4b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)May 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)September 15
Lowest Expected Low-25°F
Highest Expected Low-20°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -25°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -20°F.

Plants to Grow in Shakopee

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Shakopee.